Overview
- The Senate voted Thursday to reject a centre-left sub‑amendment that would have abolished blocked top lists and reintroduced free preferential voting, with the measure failing 68–99 in a recorded ballot.
- Senators confirmed the single‑round system and maintained the 42% cut‑off required to trigger the majority bonus, a choice the governing coalition says is needed to ensure stable governments.
- Parliamentary procedure is moving the text quickly: the commission sent the Camera bill to the Senate floor without a rapporteur and, if the Senate amends the law, it is scheduled to return to the Chamber for a third reading starting September 28.
- Negotiations continue on the so‑called 'anti‑cespugli' rule with talks leaning toward removing a vote threshold for small lists to count toward the bonus while raising the number of signatures needed to register a list to curb dummy parties.
- Roberto Vannacci and his Futuro Nazionale have publicly pressed Fratelli d’Italia to back free preferences, a pressure point that shaped majority strategy and helped shelve proposals such as a second‑round runoff.